Thundershirt-- LOVE IT. It works well for ours, as have T-Touch wraps. River has storm anxiety, Robin has everything new and unfamiliar anxiety, and Luna is just a fruitcake on legs right now. Simon did well with the wraps for his storm phobias. River also wears hers when we are on our way to a competition or taking a long/stressful car ride.
No it doesn't cure them, but it definitely helps take the edge off, at least for my dogs.
We've been dealing with some sibling aggression at our house lately. I haven't written about it, honestly, because I'm sort of wrapped up in it completely. Luna has developed some resource guarding in relation to food and me-- if it has to do with me or food+me, then there's trouble. If it has to do with Adam, it's all fine. And one of the biggest issues we're having right now is the crate, because as a result of all this, Luna has lost bed privileges, couch privileges, and is on a strict NILIF, and I need the crate for management. Big time. We're also doing a lot of classical counter conditioning/desensitization type stuff and good old fashioned obedience.
All of us are taking L-theanine, myself included.
I'm using some aromatherapy (lavender, orange, chamomile) for us all, as well as some calming herb teas for myself, since I know that part of this is my own anxiety. Luna gets another calming herbal supplement in the evenings if she's really wound up. Any time I need her to settle, she wears the Thundershirt and it definitely helps.
We're doing the classical conditioning (an open bar/closed bar thing) with her in the crate to build crate value and help keep her from guarding it.
And I'm doing Susan Garrett's Crate Games. It's fantastic.
http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.php The whole thing is building value in the crate and helping a dog learn the cues that mean "I'm about to work" vs. "I can settle in here for a while." One of the exercises is basic Premack stuff-- if you release the dog from the crate, but they choose to go back in anyway, they get jackpots. I released Luna the other day, and when she saw one of the cats, you could see her thinking and then she ran back in her crate. It was as though she thought I was tricking her.
She's not a crate fiend the way Robin is, but she sometimes runs to it when we come from outside now (and we've just been working on this in earnest for a matter of days) in the hopes of scoring a treat.
Also, I sit next to the crate and if Luna barks/whines, the whole crate is covered. When she stops for a bit, the blanket comes up-- starts again, blanket goes down. Then if she's quiet for a while without the blanket, she gets a treat. And so on. I'm having to do this and then move slowly to the door, slowly out the door, slowly out of sight. It's been tough and I'm using the University break as a chance to spend a lot of time working on this. At night, I'm making Adam crate her, since she seems to have developed such a resource-attachment to me. There seems to be less protesting (so far) to him taking care of things in that realm.
Also bought a DAP refill, but our diffuser is broken, so I haven't used that much.
Try the Through A Dog's Ear CDs-- you can download from iTunes or Amazon. We also play those on the way to competition with River, to classes with Robin. And sometimes just for me. I keep meaning to burn to a disc and set it up to play in their crate room when I'm not there.
As you can see, I like to throw it all at the wall and hope something sticks. That said, I've been using the Thundershirt and Through A Dog's Ear for about a year now, independent of the other things, and love them both. The nice thing about the Thundershirt, too, is that it's ok to leave on them unattended.
Lot more info than you asked for, but this is all soooo present in the front of my mind right now.
"In these bodies, we will live; in these bodies we will die.
Where you invest your love, you invest your life." --Marcus Mumford
--Amalie